Paul Cody

This is one of those books for which you have to roll your eyes a few times and remember that it's YA lit, so it's not necessarily supposed to be realistic sometimes, but if you can get past this, it's a stunner and a great exploration of relationships.
 
The biggest selling point of this one for me was the various interspersed chapters from other perspectives, and the way it felt like it really could be the project of high school seniors. I loved that. I loved the way other people put their opinions on our two main characters in and how these offered intriguing insights.
 
This story does throw you slightly in the deep end, starting off with an ambulance incident which already had my mind whirling with various character names, but I think that this style pays off, and that it's worth getting through the first few chapters and becoming oriented with the direction that it's taking.
 
I think that it could have benefitted by breaking away from the norms a bit more and focusing on the development of other relationships, but perhaps I ask too much.
 
Overall though, if you tend to enjoy multiple narrators or the traditional boy/girl alternating voice, this is a solid story.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
 
 … (plus d'informations)

Literary Merit: Good
Characterization: Good
Recommendation: Recommended
Grades: 9-12
Levon and Sam are paired together by their teacher to work on a year long senior project in which they write their autobiographies. Meg, their teacher, is also collecting pieces from their friends and family members to add to the finished product. Sam is new to the Clock School, a charter school serving gifted youth who have psychiatric issues, but Levon has been a student there since being kicked out of his public school several years prior. He is widely admired for his intelligence and good looks though he remains mostly a mystery to his classmates because of this loner tendencies. Sam has had some pretty horrible prior experiences with schools, but she acclimates to the Clock School quickly and makes friends, seemingly putting past issues behind her. However, both Levon and Sam will have to face up to some difficult realities before their senior year comes to an end.

Sam and Levon are complex characters who have not been successful in a typical learning environment for a variety of reasons. Levon has Asperger's (according to his mother) while Sam has struggled with depression and attempted suicide. Through these characters, the author shows us that mental illness is never as simple as a label and the roots can be both genetic and environmental. The conceit of having friends and family make contributions to the autobiographies allows the novel to be told from a variety of different perspectives in a way that makes sense. Some POVs are more effective than others. The chapters from the parents’ points of view are particularly enlightening (maybe more so for an adult reader). Sam and Levon’s relationship has a realistic arc with the two starting out understandably shy with one another and eventually becoming friends. Though romance does come into play, it’s not the main point of the book.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. The writing was a bit over the top at times, “Here we were in moonlight, I thought, two fools, late of a Thursday, desperate to see each other, full of hope like every two fools who had ever loved each other.” I actually didn’t mind it and it fit with the characters, but it’s not going to be for everyone. There was one plot point that made absolutely no sense to me (SPOILER: when Sam hooks up with her friend and then it is never mentioned again), but otherwise, it was a sweet love story that also dealt with mental illness and how it can impact and be impacted by families.… (plus d'informations)

At age 25, Jack murdered his mother, father and grandfather. The novel opens 10 years later as Jack is on death row, appeals exhausted, awaiting execution. His priest suggests he write an account to explain his actions. The novel consists of the story of "why" written by Jack, interspersed with the accounts of other witnesses, including neighbors, detectives, journalists, etc., who had knowledge of the events.

Jack is clearly psychotic, and his father was an alcoholic, his grandmother was abusive, and his mother failed to intervene. So there is plenty of dysfunction in his family to explain Jack's actions. As I was reading the novel, I was reminded of the book Red the Fiend by Gilbert Sorrentino, which is a much better book dealing with similar themes than So Far Gone.

2 1/2 stars… (plus d'informations)